ST. ALBANS, Vt. – With nine runners in the top 22 finishers, the UMass Lowell men's cross country team won the 2024 America East Men's Cross Country Championship for the fifth consecutive year and sixth time in the last seven years at the 2024 America East Cross Country Championship at Hard'Ack Recreation Area in St. Albans, Vt.

The River Hawks' 36 points would end up giving them the victory by a whopping 28 points, as all seven scoring runners finished within the top 16. Maine finished second with 64 points, while Binghamton rounded out the top three with 83.

"Overall, I am very pleased with the day on both sides," said Head Coach Gary Gardner. "For the men, we had our best race of the year as an entire team. They ran smart, controlled and tough as a group and placing nine in the top 22 is really impressive. These guys deserve a ton of credit for not taking everything for granted and continuing to work hard."

It was senior Jan Wouter Van Den Akker (Groningen, Netherlands) that led the way for the River Hawks in the 8k race, taking the bronze medal with a time of 24:02.20, just before junior Sean Kennedy-Wonneberger (East Haddam, Conn.) crossed the finish line in fourth place with a 24:09.71 mark. With these finishes, the two earned First Team All-Conference honors.

The squad collected three Second Team All-Conference honorees in senior Will Benoit (Fairhaven, Mass.), graduate student Joe Young (Dorchester, Mass.) and junior Ethan Mashtare (St. Albans, Vt.). Benoit claimed eighth place with a time of 24:32.64 before Young finished right behind him in ninth place with a 24:42.18 mark. Mashtare was not far behind, earning 12^th place with a time of 24:46.42.

Graduate student Hunter Marion (Templeton, Mass.) was next, finishing in 15^th place with a time of 24:49.82, one place ahead of graduate student Henry Farrington (Essex Junction, Vt.) in 16^th place with a 24:52.59 mark. Senior Landen Vaillancourt (New Ipswich, N.H.) then earned a top-20 finish with his 19^th-place effort, zooming to a time of 24:55.60, while Sophomore Keegan Tierney (East Greenwich, R.I.) finished in 22^nd with a 24:57.81 mark. Sophomore David McKinnon (Bloomsbury, N.J.) rounded out the River Hawks' runners with a 49^th-place effort and time of 25:43.75.

Following the win, the coaching staff was named the 2024 Men's Coaching Staff of the Year.

The squad will now set their sights to the 2024 NCAA Cross Country Northeast Regional, hosted by UMass Lowell in Hopkinton, N.H. on Friday, November 15 beginning at 11:00 a.m.